Sunday, July 23, 2017

Geater Davis - Sadder Shades of Blue

Let's rerun Preslives original post and get another dose of Geater
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Geater Davis is one of those voices from the Chitlin’
Circuitthat is much loved by his peers
and hard core Blues/Soul fans, but hardly known to the general music-loving
public.Fortunately, his recorded legacy has been issued on CD on a couple of fine compilations.His first recordings can be found on a CD from Soundscape
Records that I believe is still in print, “I’ll Play the Blues For You: The
Legendary House of Orange Sessions.”This older compilation on West Side, which is now out
of print, compiles mostly recordings done in Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals for
John Richbourg’s Sound Stage 7 label.There is only a small overlap between these two
compilations.If you really like
this one, be sure and buy the other one!One song that is on both compilations is the first
recording of a number that later became closely associated with Albert King –
“I’ll Play the Blues For You. “

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Geater Davis owes an obvious strong debt to Bobby
Bland.But his sound is more
rural, with more Southern sanctified grit.The voice is unique.Once it grabs you, you’re hooked.I can still remember the very first time that I
heard Geater Davis on “Sadder Shade of Blue,” while listening to a "Lost Soul" compilation LP.It blew my mind right from the
get go. I've been hunting down everything that I could find by Geater Davis ever since.

Geater Davis was born and raised in Texas.He worked the Circuit for most of the
60s without a recording contract.Allen Orange heard Davis in the late 60s and was so impressed that he started
his own record label to record him: House of Orange.In the early 70s, Davis moved to the Sound Stage Seven label
where he recorded most of the tracks found here. Geater Davis died in 1984 at the young age of 38.

Thanks for reposting this. Sorry for the lack of comments this week but a rabid sinus infection seized control of my fading brain and respiratory system, and the wheezing wasn't pleasing or conducive to my usual mediocre comments. Still, I did want to write that this has been an extraordinary week of posts: Sammy Price, James Booker, Geater Davis, and Lorraine Ellison. Rather than wax verbose as usual, I'll just note that I just played Ellison's Stay With Me followed by Davis' version of For Your Precious Love for my wife. Needless to say, the hairs are standing up on the back for my neck and my brain has shot into the stratosphere in search of soul heaven. Some of us may not be believers but there's no doubt when we listen to such great music, we at least know we have a soul touched by voices and emotions that transcend the lyrics. I'll close by noting that James Booker is my favorite one-eyed, alcoholic, drug-addicted, homosexual African American pianist bar none. This blog introduced me to his recordings and I became so hooked that I even loved the paranoid live rant about drugs and related matters in one of his less memorable concerts. When I describe his life to friends who haven't heard him, they think I'm making it up, but I tell them Booker was larger than life and one hell of a pianist. Well worth listening to!!!